Fluid delivery systems are employed in a wide variety of technologies to deliver a fluid with precision. Among other things, such systems are used to deliver medications intravenously, dispense chemical agents, and propel paints and inks onto a surface. For example, fluid delivery systems are often used in ink jet printers commonly used with home computers. Such fluid delivery systems generally have several fluid discharge outlets that are spaced apart from one another at equal distances, and several fluid inlets that distribute ink to the discharge outlets.
In one common design of color ink jet printers, the ink is supplied in a cartridge. The cartridge generally has two pieces of plastic welded together at the outer perimeter. The cartridge usually includes a container of black ink and several smaller containers of colored ink. The containers are arranged linearly within the cartridge. The container of black ink is, optimally, a greater volume than the colored inks because black ink is used more often than colored ink. Accordingly, at the respective inlets, the distance between the several containers of colored ink generally is smaller than the distance between the colored inks and the container of black ink. Consequently, in such cartridges, the fluid inlets are not evenly spaced apart. Unlike the fluid inlets, the fluid outlets are generally spaced apart at equal distances to ensure that the ink is applied evenly to the paper.
In those cartridges where the spacing between the inlets is variable and the spacing between the outlets is uniform, the channels between the respective inlets and outlets typically are not straight. In fact, the channels can be configured to be very long and tortuous. Such long channels increase the difficulty of effectively manufacturing the cartridge. If a channel is not properly constructed, ink from such channel (e.g., the channel with black ink) undesirably can leak into the other channels.